UCONN WOMEN'S GAME TAKEN FROM PAGES OF BULLS ASSISTANT'S BOOK

Neil Milbert, Tribune Staff WriterCHICAGO TRIBUNE

To keep his defending NCAA women's champions "in the right frame of mind" for Saturday's Mideast Regional opener at the Horizon, Connecticut coach Geno Auriemma took them to see the Bulls demolish the New York Knicks Thursday at the United Center.

"It was fun to see the Bulls executing our offense," said Kara Wolters, Connecticut's 6-foot-7-inch junior center. Then, with tongue tucked in cheek, she added, "You know, they stole it from us."

Although college women's basketball is radically different from the slam-jam game played in the NBA, the offense that Connecticut is using in its attempt to repeat as the NCAA champion is taken chapter and verse from the one the Bulls used to win three consecutive championships.

Bulls assistant coach Tex Winter wrote the bible and Auriemma is a fervent disciple.

"Our offense comes from the book that Tex Winter wrote in the 1960s and from watching a lot of films of the Bulls," Auriemma said. "I taped every game they played in the 1994 finals against Phoneix and broke down every offensive possession.

"I watched them play and it reminded me of old-time basketball with the constant passing, cutting and screening. I thought it'd be great for us to run but I wasn't sure you could do it without big guys in the middle who can pass."

So, when Connecticut took a European tour in the summer of 1994, Auriemma decided to experiment with the "triangle offense," also known as the "triple post."

"I was going to junk it if it didn't work over there," Auriemma said. "We had a 4-1 record and we beat the French champions and the Italian champions. I decided to keep it. The beauty of it is you can tailor it any way you want--our big guys catch and score while the Bulls shoot from the perimeter."

Connecticut's adaptation of Winter's "triangle" worked to perfection last season. The victory over Tennessee in the NCAA championship game capped a 35-0 season.

Back then, Auriemma had his answer to Michael Jordan in Rebecca Lobo, Player of the Year in women's college basketball. The task now is repeating without the graduated superstar, who scored 2,133 points and snared 1,268 rebounds in her career.

"If we had Rebecca back, we'd be undefeated and wouldn't lose another game," Auriemma said.

Instead, his team is going into Saturday's game with a 32-3 record. Not perfect, but definitely Bullish.

Although Auriemma doesn't have Lobo, he does have a pair of first-team All-Americans in Wolters and senior point guard Jennifer Rizzotti, and his team is only four triumphs away from another national championship.

"Realistically, this is where you want to get to," said Auriemma. "We're a better team than San Francisco--we've proven it over the season. But we can't lose sight of the fact that San Francisco is a good, well-coached team that plays the game the right way. If they play better than they have all season and we play less than our best game, we'll get beat.

"There's a reason we're a No. 1 seed and San Francisco is a 12th seed. We have to go out there and find that reason."